Tag: Farmgirl Decorating

When we moved into this house two years ago (my goodness, time flies!), the walls were a dingy, rental white with chipped grey trim. I have never been a fan of white. I rarely utilize white. I adore color!

BeforeAfter

I have kept a notebook of magazine clippings of loved décor for the past fifteen years or so. As I flipped through the worn pages I discovered something; every single room had white/cream walls. All of them.

“I’m surprised you are painting the walls white,” Shyanne responded on text after I sent her the first wall completed.

BeforeI am still working on organizing this corner, but it will be a sweet little space for writing and dreaming. I moved the desk so that I could put up a folding table to hold more plants under the window.

As soon as we moved in two years ago, I painted the walls warm yellow with a library brown trim and they were lovely. This house is nearly one hundred years old, adobe, build in a proper style where the windows and eves are set just right so that in the summer the sun is above the house and in the winter, the sun floods through the windows. I can touch the ceilings. This house wasn’t built by tall people, y’all. The result is that it feels almost cave-like sometimes and remarkably cozy. With all my bright colors and plants though, it felt cluttered.

Before

So, what the heck, right? I went and chose a crisp with a touch of cream, white paint and set to work New Year’s Eve. It is amazing how dirty walls get over the years and the white paint was like a cleansing. All of the colors of my southwestern things just pop against the new gallery walls and the space feels bright and wintery. Cool and enlivening. New and fresh.

Finances and a very large puppy mean that we aren’t getting new furniture very soon but these pieces, dingy and a bit torn as they may be, become transformed with a few bright blankets.

“What do I want to devote space to?” A very good question for the new year. For me, it is my work. With all my beautiful items at the ready, I don’t have to be digging through closets and bags to find what I need for ceremony!

Next to it I placed a table with my curiosities. My bird nests and feathers.

Before (found my husband!)After

With the house nice and bright and filled with southwestern color and all my bright paintings displayed, I feel light and calm, happy and inspired. So white was the right color for me all along!

With a bit of paint, some blankets to use as throws, and a rearrangement of furniture, you can have a whole new living space designed for what you want to make space for.

I am an advocate of using what we have. I have a beat up couch and a beat up futon and some beat up chairs and a giant puppy who likes to sleep on them. I have hand me down furniture that can easily move from room to room to create a different look.

The newly white bookshelf matches its mate now. I set it at an angle in the corner to create a smooth appearance to my mini office space complete with vintage secretary. This L-shaped living and dining room in my hundred year old house lends itself to separate areas for reading, or conversation, or entertaining.

Tomorrow I will show you what fabulous finds you can get at antique stores, garage sales, craigslist, or thrift stores that still work in this day and age and make life so peaceful and satisfying in their gentle whirrings and lack of electric usage, but there are some things I get new. Unfortunately from Walmart, but there it is. It would be ridiculous to use vintage quilts on our furniture. They are best left to beds. These quilts were twenty dollars and they are surprisingly well made and hold up as farmer’s markets table cloths and chair covers.

Even though the twinkly lights don’t look that great during the day time, come dusk they transform our house into an enchanted fairy land. They are our sole light along with kerosene lamps and candles in this space.

The Hoosier was hiding in the kitchen. The Farmhouse sign was hiding in the kitchen as well. They looks so lovely as the first things you see when you walk in our front door.

The Hoosier has been outfitted as a bar. The cupboard holds glasses. The flour case holds bottles. The drawer holds openers and tea candles.

The side table and mirror have been outfitted as a wine stand. The magazine rack holds food magazines.

The black table lends itself to drama and simple items, like birds nests and natural items found outdoors. Such perfect decoration and it can change with the seasons.

I moved a table that was in the living room into the kitchen and put a double rack on top to hold all of my cookbooks. A simple solution to dissuade the puppy from eating my cookbooks and it is beautiful in its highlight of the lamp, books, and coffee grinder.

Growing where planted and gratitude are important and the frugal homesteader can do a lot with paint and a little creativity. There is no place like home! See you tomorrow for part 3!

I had good intentions when I painted it the first time! Instead of a lovely, muted pumpkin orange, the ten dollar table from a yard sale looked more like it was showing its football pride. (I love Broncos as much as the next Coloradan but not in the kitchen!) The orange paint started peeling off right away because yours truly didn’t sand the top.

The lovely young woman staying with me donned an apron and helped me redecorate and restore. She may as well be one of my children. We sanded off the old paint, which didn’t take much, and roughed up the surface.

I wanted a chalkboard top. We looked and looked for chalkboard paint in the aisle and could only find spray paint. Then we saw “chalk style” paint. I thought it was a strange way to say chalkboard paint but we took it home all the same and applied it to the table. It was watery. And then I remembered what chalk paint is! It is like white wash. It adds a vintage look to furniture.

I painted the legs. The table has been transformed from football to farmhouse!

Now, one quart of Country White paint- which is just a touch cream- makes all the difference in the world to cast offs. Take this brown bookshelf. I have never loved the brown. I always meant to paint it.

It is amazing how much different it looks and how comforting and country it now looks.

A brown side table and vintage mirror got the same treatment.

I will show y’all tomorrow how these pieces, along with a little chaos and hard work, transformed my house into a beautiful farmhouse!

In the winter I was experimenting with how to set up our new house. An art and writing area, a music and reading area, and a sitting area took up separate sections of the old living room. Then my classes started and I needed to be able to seat ten people comfortably and have a bigger conversation area. The living room was rearranged again. Now I am looking at having my family over for Thanksgiving dinner and entertaining for the holidays. I will need a place for the Christmas tree (I know, I know, it’s not even Halloween…) and I wanted the seating area to surround the wood stove for cozy nights with a delicious book and a cup of hot chocolate. Add to that I wanted to display my medicines for when customers come by, and have a place for all of my plants so I tapped into my inner Martha Stewart and spent the day redecorating!

Faux fur rugs and gold toned throw pillows cozy up the velvet futon which reclines to become a double bed for guests.On the other side of the wood stove the love seat sits. A colorful sofa cover and earth toned throw pillows set a comfy space to play the guitar or have a drink. Guess what is behind the cow painting? The television! Wish I would have thought of it years ago. I am always trying to hide that thing!I knew our life transitioned into a new stage when I agreed to buy matching recliners. To me, recliners are the ugliest things ever and I swore I’d never have them in the house. (They are awfully comfortable though…)There wasn’t room for the coffee table in front of the recliners so I made it into a stand for my farmer’s market kit of medicines. Games, movies, and music are stored on the bottom shelf of the coffee table.Books are always at the ready and Maryjane’s books are easy to reach for when she comes to visit. A set of old doors creates drama, and my lovely grandfather clock adds charm. My collection of Native art and my feathers adorn the shelves.The table is closer to the front door than the kitchen now but I have more space to expand the table here. I can roll the giant aloe plant to the corner and add another table in here to accommodate more guests.My desk is an old sewing machine table and it can be rolled into the bedroom when it’s time to add a Christmas tree after Thanksgiving.

I didn’t spend a penny on this redecorating day and it only took a few hours. The house feels cozy and the pumpkins and colors add an autumnal spirit. Twinkly lights are always in order for a charming home. Wishing you a beautiful season filled with warmth and family and home.

The kitchen is the heart of the home, is it not? Where sustenance and love culminates into family around the table, friends clinking glasses, the quiet of morning coffee, and the gentle stirring of a pot of something delicious. This is the largest kitchen I have ever had and it is just wonderful. Even more wonderful, I didn’t have to do anything to it! I love the color and the punched tin back splash is something I would have chosen myself. The twinkly lights and festive grape vine lights replace the harsh overhead lighting (when I’m not taking pictures). I will never opt for overhead lighting if I can help it! I also removed the curtains.

We scored this sign last week and couldn’t believe our luck.

In these old houses the washer hook up is in the kitchen. That seems quite reasonable to me. Doug will be putting up a clothes line for me today!

My apron collection hangs primly around the pantry. The sign was a gift from a student. It is a lovely reminder that dreams do come true.

The children’s knick knacks that they created during their childhood surround the sink along with Maryjane’s miniature coffee cups for when she sleeps over.

Plenty of counter space, beautiful gifts from friends, and years to come of precious memories and delicious food. Sláinte!

A ninety-one year old house sits quietly empty on its large lot. No one to creak the old wood floors or light the flames in the firebox. There isn’t laughter in the kitchen yet, wine glasses clinking, or sizzling from the stove. The curtains are dark and block out the sunlight and the chill fills the empty space. The old house wishes for children running through slamming the screen door. Chickens knocking at the back door. Flowers growing in the flower boxes. Singing in the shower, and in the kitchen. The old house has its own pleasant spirit that I cannot wait to get to know.

Long time followers and friends know that I love to decorate, to create, to inspire, to set emotions with décor and life. I pull a color from a braided rug that would make a lovely trim color. I need to get in there and sit quietly. Listen to the old house.

There are no library books on decorating called “Eclectic, Amish, Country, New Mexican Style”!

I start with a rug. I love braided rugs. They can be made by saving long scraps of fabric, or long 2 inch strips of old sheets. You simply braid the pieces together. Sew on more strips at the end. A few stitches along the strip to keep in place. Then start winding the strip into a circle or oval and stitch pieces to stay in place. I found a stellar deal on Wayfair for a few beautiful rugs that I couldn’t do better myself so they will be the primary pieces of our new home. One day I will create my own with old sheets or cotton. It is a brilliant way to reuse old fabric.

After the New Year I’ll bring you in to decorate with me. Home sweet Home. The best Christmas present we can think of!

Katie Lynn Sanders is an urban Farmgirl, writer, Mama, Grammie, and herbalist. Katie lives with her husband, Gandalf the Great Pyrenees, kitties, and seven chickens in a hundred year old adobe in Pueblo. She is the writer of two blogs; FarmgirlSchool.org and DancingWithFeathers.com. You can find all of Katie's books at www.AuthorKatieSanders.com